


I Hope You Dance

by KaeCooks



Series: Ruins of Rockford [2]
Category: Chicago Fire
Genre: Casett, F/M, brettsey, first person POV, married with kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 08:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27690095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaeCooks/pseuds/KaeCooks
Relationships: Sylvie Brett/Matthew Casey
Series: Ruins of Rockford [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2024948
Comments: 7
Kudos: 49





	I Hope You Dance

When I pick Amelia up from school, I immediately know something’s wrong. 

Her eyes are red from crying and her cheeks are stained with tears. She’s sitting on a bench as close to Miss Becker, her teacher, as she can be without sitting on her lap. 

I quicken my pace to reach her, sending a questioning look in Miss Becker’s direction. 

She smiles softly at me, gently nudging my sister’s shoulder and pointing at me.

“Sylvie!” Amelia cries as she leaps off the bench and charges into my arms. 

“Melie, sweetheart, what’s wrong?” I ask, wrapping my arms around her. 

She doesn’t say anything, just sniffles against my chest. I can already feel her tears soaking through my shirt and it’s breaking my heart.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask softly, stroking her hair. 

She shakes her head.

I look up at her second grade teacher for the next question. “Does Miss Becker know what happened?”

Amelia nods this time, her sniffles subsiding but her grip holds strong.

“Can she tell me?” I ask my sister, who nods again.

Miss Becker takes a deep breath before she starts, and she looks like she feels responsible for why my sister is upset. “I asked the kids to write about their parents today,” she starts, and I already know where this is heading, but I stay quiet, giving the young woman a moment to finish her story. “And then I asked them to share.” 

“Cassie made fun of me for not having a mommy and daddy, Sylvie,” Amelia said, picking up for her teacher. “She said I was a really bad girl and my mommy and daddy hate me and made me live with you and Matt.”

“Oh, Melie, I’m so sorry she said that,” I sigh, still aware of the young woman standing over us, observing. I’ll talk to her as soon as I take care of my little sister. “But you remember what Matt and I always tell you, right?”

That seemed to do the trick. Amelia straightens up and looks between Miss Becker and me as she recites, “My mommy’s in a better place and my daddy loved me so much that he gave me to you and Matt so you could take care of me when he couldn’t - just like our mommy did for you!”

“And you know how much Matt and I love you?”

She’s smiling now. “To the moon and stars and forever and ever!”

I pull her in for a quick hug and plant a kiss on her forehead. “That’s right, love bug,” I say, then turn to Miss Becker. 

“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Casey. I didn’t realize you weren’t her mom. You two look so much alike. I - I shouldn’t’ve said ‘parents’ specifically.”

“It’s okay, Miss Becker!” Amelia chirps, running to give her teacher a hug. Maybe it’s the elevated hormones, but what she says when she releases her brings tears to my eyes. “My sissy loves me just as much as my mommy or daddy would have!”

I smile gently at the young teacher. “Kids are resilient. We’re okay,” I tell her. There’s no need for her to beat herself up over an assumption. If I were in her shoes, I would have thought the same thing. Amelia has the same last name as Matt and I and she’s young enough to be our daughter. No one who doesn’t know our situation would have any reason to think otherwise.

“Maybe next time I’ll change the activity so the kids write about their favorite person. That’ll leave it wide open for kids with different circumstances and hopefully we can avoid this happening again.”

“Sylvie, can we go get Gracie now?” 

I nod and she grabs my hand, starting to pull me away from the school. “Miss Melie,” I say softly, leaning back to slow her. “Isn’t there something you should tell Miss Becker before we leave?”

“Oh! Yeah!” She turns back toward her teacher. “Thanks for sitting with me, Miss Becker! See you tomorrow!” 

“Goodbye,” she replies, waving us off with a smile.

Despite recovering from her classmate’s comment relatively quickly, Amelia grows quiet again when we get to the car. 

“Sylvie?” she says as she hops into her booster seat. 

“Yeah?”

“You’re my sissy but -” she hesitated a moment, as if thinking whether she really wanted to ask the question, “can I call you and Matt Mommy and Daddy? And then we can pretend Gracie is my sister?”

Grace, Matt’s and my daughter, was only two years old. She called us Mama and Dada. She was none the wiser that Amelia was her aunt and called us by our first names - a decision I’d made when I took her on. My adoptive parents told me the truth about my birth parents giving me up at an early age. I wanted to do the same for my sister. Matt supported me every step of the way. 

_“Whatever you decide, Sylvie,” he’d said one night, curled up behind me after we finally got the baby to sleep, “I’m here.”_

Amelia’s question broke my heart a little bit. I never wanted her to feel insecure about her situation, but I could also understand where she was coming from. “Whatever you want, love bug. If calling us Mommy and Daddy makes you feel better, go for it.”

She smiles at me. “Thanks, Mommy,” she says slowly, trying it out. 

“Anything for you,” I reply, giving her nose a light tap. It makes her laugh every time.

_____________

We pull into the Herrmann’s ten minutes later. 

Cindy had volunteered to watch Amelia when Matt and I first brought her home, which we happily took her up on. Leaving a baby is much easier when you trust the person you’re leaving her with… especially when you know that person has already raised her own five kids. As more and more kids were brought into the 51 family, Cindy designated herself as the babysitter for all them one by one: our Amelia and Grace, Cruz and Chloe’s Brian, Stella and Kelly’s Andy and Leslie, Ritter and his husband’s adopted twins, Jake and Joel, and - the latest addition - Gallo and Mackey’s baby girl, Allie. Cindy is truly a superwoman, taking care of all of them, and promising to have space for any more who come along. (And believe me, there’s more coming along.)

“Hey,” Stella catches my attention as she’s coming out the door, three-year-old Leslie sleepily resting in her arms as five-year-old Andrew talks her ear off about everything they did in school today. “Just a minute, Andy,” she says to him, then turns to me. “I saw Amelia with her teacher when I got little man here - all good?”

“Yeah, we’re good,” I tell her. 

“Good. See you later,” she says, getting her two little ones into the Jeep.

It’s a good thing that I work with all of my best friends because I probably wouldn’t see them very much otherwise. 

_______________________

Amelia attaches “Mommy” to every statement or question directed at me the rest of the way home. Every time she refers to Matt, she says “Daddy.” She sounds more sure of herself every time. I can’t say I mind the sound of it, either. 

“Alright, Miss Melie,” I say when we get home. “Remember Ma -” I catch myself and quickly correct, “ _Daddy_ doesn’t know you want to call us Mommy and Daddy yet, so don’t get upset if he looks surprised.”

“Okay!” she chirps, unbuckling herself and hopping out of the car. I unfasten Grace from her carseat and prop her on my hip. Pretty soon she’ll be too big to carry like this. 

Then again, pretty soon _I’ll_ be too big to carry her like that. 

We get inside and Matt’s in the kitchen, bent over some blueprints. He sees us come in and his eyes light up. We’ve been married for five years and his eyes still light up every time we come home. He’s such a great dad. The kids will have no doubts exactly how much he loves them.

He slides off the barstool and comes into the living room, arms wide. “There’s my girls!”

“Hi, Daddy!” Amelia exclaims, throwing her arms around him. 

“Heya, Miss Melie,” he replies, returning her hug. His reaction doesn’t give away anything to her, but I can see the question in his eyes over her shoulder. _Daddy?_

Grace squirms out of my arms and toddles over to him. “Dada!” 

Amelia scoots to the side, making room for Grace in a group hug. 

After a moment, the two girls pull away and run off to play before dinner. Matt pushes himself back to his feet and it’s my turn for a hug. 

“Daddy?” he asks when he lets me go, cocking his head to the side ever so slightly.

“Small incident at school today,” I explain and his brow furrows. “Nothing major, Matt, don’t worry.” He listens as I give him the details and nods when I finish.

“Think it’s gonna stick?”

I shrug. “Guess we’ll find out tomorrow.” 

“Well, I like the sound of it -- her calling me that, I mean.” 

“Do you like it enough to have three people calling you that?” I ask, grabbing his hand and pressing his palm against my abdomen. 

“Three?” he asks, short-circuiting for a moment. “Sylvie, are you-”

I can’t contain myself any more, seeing the excitement in his eyes. “We’re gonna have another baby, Matt.” 

Just like that, he’s got me pulled back, flush against his chest, and he’s peppering kisses on the top of my head. “I love you,” he breathes. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too,” I reply, my heart absolutely bursting. I love our family. I can’t wait to grow it.


End file.
